Beckingham Marshes

I can't believe we are into the middle of June already, the year is going quickly and our wader breeding season is almost over! In the last blog I highlighted that we have had our highest numbers of breeding waders ever this year, with 26 pairs of lapwing and 5 pairs of redshank. This is excellent news, however unfortunately it looks like we will only fledge 2-3 young. The bad weather throughout May is undoubtedly the…

It's been another busy couple of months over on the Marshes and the breeding season is well and truly underway. The lapwing and redshank are breeding on the wet grassland fields and this year we have had 26 pairs of lapwing and 5 pairs of redshank. This is the highest number of pairs of both species we have ever had, which is excellent news. However it is unfortunate that we haven't seen many chicks around. It is thought…

We have had some lovely spring-like days over at Beckingham in the last week, lifting spirits and looking forward to the breeding season ahead. And indeed the breeding season is nearly upon us, with both lapwing and redshank heard displaying on site in the last week. Look and listen out for their distinctive display flights, lapwings wheeling around in the air and redshanks flying low to the ground, whilst calling. 

It's been another busy few months over at Beckingham, with plenty of good bird sightings and plenty of work to keep our volunteers busy. Mid-late winter is when we get the best numbers of wildfowl and wintering waders using the site. So far this winter, we have had up to 600 wigeon, 500 lapwing and 1000 golden plover on site. The wigeon are important for grazing the grass so the lapwings can nest in open grassland in…

In our last blog it felt like winter was on it's way, but this time it feels like it is well and truly here. For the last two weeks the air around Beckingham has been full of the sounds of our wintering birds - wigeon and other wildfowl, golden plover and lapwing. Around 300 wigeon are now resident on the marshes, favouring the pond area that can be seen opposite the viewing platform. The more wigeon we have, the better…

It's been a while since the last Beckingham update, so here we go with all the reserve news from the last few months....

The late summer and early autumn period are often quite quiet for birds at Beckingham, with all our breeding waders having left for the year. However the late autumn and early winter sees the return of our wintering wildfowl and in the last few weeks we have had out first wigeon back on site. There…

It's been another busy few weeks at Beckingham Marshes, with some good wildlife sightings and plenty of work going on with our volunteers. Breeding waders were not monitored as thoroughly as they usually are due to the Coronavirus situation, however we are pleased to report that we had plenty of lapwing and redshank around in the main part of the breeding season. We hope that there were at least 25 pairs of lapwing on…

It's been a while since the last update, so we are well overdue a blog! Firstly, we are pleased to announce that the reserve is now open, so come along and visit us and let us know what wildlife you see!

The breeding season is well underway over at Beckingham and the lapwings seem to be doing well. We haven't been able to complete fukll breeding wader surveys this year unfortunately, however anecdotal evidence suggests…

In my last blog, I said we had smashed our previous records for wintering birds on site. Well it seems that the bird weren't finished there, as we have once again smashed all previous records for wintering wigeon, lapwing and golden plover...

1500 lapwing

1000 wigeon

2200 golden plover

Golden plover. Chris Gomersall (rspb-images.com)

The amount of water on site is undoubtedly the reason we have so many birds, with…

After all the rain over the last few months, the water levels at Beckingham are looking amazing - all the scrapes are full and are spilling out onto the surrounding grassland, creating some great looking flashes across large areas of the site. All this water is proving very attractive to birds, with the following totals absolutely smashing our previous records for the site....

1000 wigeon (previous high total 600)

2000…

Winter is definitely coming over at Beckingham, with a nice selection of wintering birds now using the site. A total of 325 wigeon were seen in the first week of November on the wet grassland fields and we hope that this number will build up throughout the winter. Wigeon are brilliant - they graze the grass on the wet fields, helping to get a nice short sward ready for the lapwings to start breeding in April. Winter wildfowl…

It's been a while since the last Beckingham blog, so it is well overdue an update. The breeding season was one of good news and bad news, with the start looking very promising, however the weather seemed to play a large part in determining the outcomes of a lot of breeding birds. Beckingham is managed primarily for it's breeding waders including lapwing and redshank. This year we had a record number of pairs of…

Spring is definitely in the air over at Beckingham. The air is full of displaying lapwing and redshank and skylark and meadow pipit are singing away. The tree sparrow season is now upon us too, with numerous birds calling away from the hedgerows. Now is the time of year when we spend a lot of our time monitoring our breeding birds and we spent a very pleasant morning last week looking at our lapwings out on the wet grassland…

Signs of spring are now apparent out on site, with lapwings starting their distinctive courtship displays over the wet grassland fields. The winter flock of lapwings has started to disperse and our breeding birds are now with us for the season. A pair of redshank are now back with us too and have been heard making their courtship calls over the field viewable from the platform - another of our breeders, fingers crossed…

It's been another great winter over at Beckingham Marshes, with record numbers of birds and some good scarcities.

Wigeon numbers have been their highest yet, with over 600 birds present in January and February. Wigeon spend the winter grazing our grassland, getting the sward into good condition for the lapwings to breed in the spring, so the more wigeon we have, the better the grassland for our lapwings in April.

Another wader and wildfowl breeding season is drawing to its conclusion over at Beckingham at the moment and it’s looking like another success!

Our lapwing numbers have gone up once again, with a total of 16 pairs attempting to breed on site in 2018. This is up by 2 from last year. So far 14 young have fledged and it’s great to see them flying around. There are still more younger chicks around though, so hopefully…

The wet and cold weather of late will have undoubtedly slowed down some aspects of spring, however we appear to be underway with our breeding wader season over at Beckingham, as we were delighted to discover during the first survey of the year yesterday.

Lapwings are always the most numerous of our waders with an estimated 14 pairs on site from yesterday’s count. This number could go up over the next few weeks, so is…

It's been another excellent two weeks out on site at Beckingham, with birds and water aplenty! The water levels across the wet grassland fields seem to have risen even more, aided no doubt by the snow melt and the heavy rain we have had in the last couple of weeks. This additional flooding has two positive effects - firstly, it slows the growth of the grass underwater and secondly, it pushes the grazing wigeon even…

Beckingham Marshes is still looking fabulously wet at the moment, with water levels still rising over the reserve, full scrapes and lovely large areas of flooded grassland. All this water is attracting hundreds of birds to the site and makes for quite a spectacle!

Most of our visitors are wildfowl, comprising several species such as wigeon, teal, gadwall, shoveler and mallard. However, we have had a few scarcer visitors…

Last week’s task over at Beckingham Marshes was to help our friends at the Willow Works Community Group in the willow garden. The willow garden is doing really well, with our cuttings taken and planted last year, now growing to over 6 feet tall and some of the larger standard willows now ready for pollarding.

Last week’s activity however, was tidying up the living willow tunnels. The two tunnels are fabulous little…

Water level management at Beckingham is one of the key aspects of our successful wet grassland habitat. It is high water levels that provide the best food source for our breeding birds, with the invertebrates they feed on being pushed up to the surface by the rising water. In winter, the combination of high water next to lush grassland provides ideal conditions for grazing wildfowl, most notably wigeon. Who in turn, also…

Firstly, from the Beckingham team, a very Happy New Year to everyone. 2017 was another great year of success at Beckingham, with our highest ever number of lapwings breeding, 3 pairs of redshank and the first ever breeding attempt of curlew, not to mention the mountain of tree sparrows that fledged! There's certainly a lot to be excited about and to look forward to for 2018 and we hope to see the site improve even more…

It's been another successful breeding season at Beckingham. Our final figures included 14 pairs of lapwings, our highest ever, fledging a minimum of 12 young, but up to 15. This is not as good a productivity as 2016, but still respectable. 3 pairs of redshank were present, with two making confirmed breeding attempts and one of these being successful. This is the second year that redshank have bred on site, after the…

It's been a very busy spring and summer over at Beckingham and one of our best yet for several bird species. With the season now coming to an end, here is a summary of how our birds have done....

Lapwing - 2017 has seen the highest number of pairs ever on site, with a total of 14 making breeding attempts. They have so far successfully fledged 10 young, but we are still awaiting some late broods, so we hope this total…

The habitat at Beckingham is still looking fabulous at the moment with water and birds everywhere! The 300 strong flock of wigeon is slowly starting to dwindle as birds return to their northerly breeding grounds, but others are arriving for the breeding season, with several pairs of shoveler back, the first gadwall arriving and a charming pair of shelduck.

A pair of oystercatcher has taken up residence on the wet field…